What is Quality? – 3 steps to Quality Assurance

As a company with 50 years plus heritage, quality is a core value at the heart Crabtree’s operation. But how do you define quality? It can mean different things to different people and in different contexts.

According to ISO 9000:2015 sections 3.6.2, quality is

“the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an object fulfils requirements.”

How does this translate in to our customers?

Quality that is exact — a state that can be defined, verified, and reproduced again and again.

Our Quality

As quality is so important to Crabtree, we were motivated achieve the international ISO 9001:2015 quality accreditation. This achievement is evidence of our on-going commitment to providing our customers with the highest possible standard of products, service, advice and support.

Following this award, we’re pleased to share a few new customer care initiatives that have been developed to improve our quality assurance process and the packaging we use when delivering components

Step 1 – Quality Assurance Area

Customers of Crabtree will already be aware of and will have benefited from the rigorous inspection programme that we have in place, for the vast range of parts we produce.

This service has now been enhanced by the creation of the Quality Assurance Area within our factory. In this location, we ensure that every individually manufactured part is given a final check by a highly qualified inspection engineer to ensure it is within the required specification. Only when this is confirmed are parts then authorised for dispatch or passed to our stores department.

The accreditation is assessed and awarded on an organisation’s ability to demonstrate consistent products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements.

Step 2 – Dispatch of Components

We’re extremely proud of our ability to offer same day shipping of up to 50% of our spares orders directly from stock. We ensure that our stock levels are continuously well maintained and managed. This is quite an achievement considering that we can supply parts to equipment which is over 35-years-old.

Step 3 –Investing in Technologies and Systems

To provide greater assurances that the parts we supply are delivered to our clients in the same high-quality condition as when they leave, we have recently invested in a new packaging system.

Central to this is a new specialist machine which helps us better secure and protect parts during their transit to our worldwide customer base. This process is also more environmentally friendly, as it greatly reduces the amount of timber we use in the dispatch process.